Take a shot every time you read the words "sex worker" aaaaand you're drunk. Oops. But seriously, wow. I know I've complained about how this series is repetitive (and this is no exception) but the sheer amount of times I saw those words, or we had to suffer through another reflection of Ana's time being a sex worker, or reminiscing about clients, or events, all around her time as a sex worker, I just.. snooze. Normally I have nothing against characters with this profession but this was just too much.

And I think in general just the entire story, and the characters, annoyed me. We did get a bit of a break on formula with this one, which was nice, but also Famine was like.. a damsel in distress on just one too many occasion. I don't understand how he was constantly in the situations he was in, and sure it was nice to see the lady love rescue the big strong angel demon guy (which is another trend for this series), but like.. come on.

Also, Famine was referred to as The Reaper and also had a scythe. Isn't that supposed to be Death's shtick or has that been conflated? I guess we'll find out what fun nicknames and weapons the latter has in the next book but I found this kind of confusing.

As mentioned (but I'm repeating it for irony's sake) this was repetitive. Ride horses, find a town, take over a house, kill everyone around, grow some plants, Ana fights back and or runs away, Famine chases, ride the horse, find a town.. you get it.

This one just didn't work for me, much like book one didn't -- but in a few different ways. But with only one left to go, I'm hoping we end on.. if not a high note at least a more interesting one. I am sorta expecting a twist based on how Death has interacted with his brothers up until this point but.. I guess we'll see.

Famine by Laura Thalassa is the third installment in the four horseman series. I am happy to say that this just as good as the previous two! It was also different which I appreciated because these books all have many similarities. Famine and Ana's romance was the most emotional which I think lended well to the story because Famine is the horseman who is the least in touch with humanity. I loved to see Ana constantly challenging him and always being selfless. Famine was also very grumpy which I loved. The only thing that put me off of this book was some of Ana's decisions at the beginning of the book. She decides to get revenge and kill the horseman even though she knows he cannot be killed. This just made no sense to me. She also warms up to him only for him to kill and disappoint her again. This happens over and over and it got frustrating. However once we got past that in the beginning, I had no problems. The ending to this book was also very exciting because it makes an important set up for Death's book which I am most excited about. I see a horseman reunion coming and I cannot wait!
Thanks to NetGalley and Bloom Books for the ARC in exchange for a review!

I read all of these when they were indie books I’m so glad she’s getting a publishing contract they’re good reads!

Utterly fantastic series. I end up liking ever book more than the last. The blend of post apocalyptic and romance is one I'll always be interested in. Laura Thalassa is the queen of that.

Coming into Book 3, I was both excited and nervous. I ended up falling in love with these first two books so I was hyped to find another new favorite. Sadly, that didn’t happen here but I will say that it really upped the stakes for the entire series.

Famine follows the story of Famine as he’s conquering Brazil and we meet Ana who has already met Famine but he doesn’t remember. After realizing who she is and how they’re connected, he ends up taking her as his captive. However, unlike the previous heroes, Famine is not quick to give up on his mission.

Ana and Famine have the slowest of slow-burn romances. I was just dying for these two to kiss and for me, this was a bit of a letdown. While I still enjoyed the story and even the surprise at the end, the romance fell flat for me. The two did end up coming together and it was nice but Famine’s disgust for her overpowered a lot of the romance for me.

Regardless, this is the next-tot-the-last book in the series so there are only so many tropes and storylines to feature within this world. Plus not every single book was going to be a hit but this time, Famine missed the mark. Even so, it gives me a lot of hope for what the final book in the Four Horsemen series is going to entail as it’s finally Death’s turn, and with the ending of Famine, I really have no idea how Laura Thalassa is going to pull this off.

Five years ago when she finds him torn apart, she showed him kindness and saved him, even knowing what he was. And for that he let her live. But everything else was taken from her and she's forced into life in a brothel. When Famine reappears in her life and she survives death at the hands of his men, he only recognizes her after she's holding a knife to his throat, vowing revenge. She can't stand watching humanity die at the hands of this brutal man, but he refuses to let her go. And the longer she rides with him, the more she can see things from his side, and the more she drawn to him. And when Famine is ready to give up his mission for her he's faced with an impossible choice by none other than Death himself, his brother.
Famine is the most complicated horseman so far and I think my favorite. I love the way he treated Ana right from the start and their banter was hilarious. The tie-in with Death at the end has me anxious to start the next book. I've loved the rest of the series so far!
I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

[edit]
5 - ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

For Pestilence and War, they followed their divine orders out of a sense of duty, believing them a justified punishment. For Famine, it’s all for revenge.

This book reminded me of Pestilence in that it starts popping off right from the start. At this point, 24 years since the Horseman first arrived, society has tried to return to some sense of normalcy. People have established villages and towns, shops and merchants provide wares, and everyone is doing their best to survive during the apocalypse.

Our main character, Ana, is unique in that she is the first of our protagonists who was born after the world fell and knows nothing of the before times. She had met Famine before prior to the beginning of the book and all we know is that there were circumstances that drove them apart. Ana and Famine’s reunion is far from touching, as he has become consumed by vengeance over the years and has no love for humanity. The two of them have changed drastically in the last five years, and though the chemistry is still there, it may be too late for Ana to stop Famine’s devastation.

This book is dark and Famine does not shy away from cruelty. While I don’t agree with or approve of the things he’s done, I do understand him, and that’s what Ana has to come to terms with as well. The two of them had great banter and were surprisingly vulnerable with each other. They’ve both experienced the darkness of humanity and it was touching to see them support each other in their healing over the course of their journey.

The ending was wild!!! I was so excited to see some familiar faces, which turned into dread once we find out the circumstances. I’m very interested in seeing how Death wraps everything up, especially since he seems the most detached from both mortals and his brothers.

E chegamos ao terceiro cavaleiro do apocalipse, Famine, com quem Ana da Silva já teve um encontro no passado: ela salvou a vida dele. Agora eles se reencontram e, depois que ela falha em tirar sua vida, ele a mantém refém.

Infelizmente Famine caiu na categoria de pior livro da série. E eu achando que o ruim mesmo seria a Ana ser brasileira e prostituta, a cada página esse livro me provava o contrário.

O começo do livro, assim como os outros, é bem envolvente, mas depois tudo desanda. O que mais me incomodou foi o fato da personalidade de Ana girar apenas em fazer piadinhas de cunho sexual. OK gata, a gente entende que por conta do que você fazia, talvez sexo não seja um tabu, mas chegou num ponto que eu não aguentava mais.

Já Famine... eu juro que bati demais a cabeça pra tentar lembrar de sua personalidade, mas ele é bastante esquecível. Só sabemos que ele quer manter Ana ao seu lado, por motivos que nem lembro mais, exceto pelo fato que Ana tentou desviver ele e deu ruim. Senti que faltou um pouco dos diálogos sobre seu papel no apocalipse, como foi nos outros dois livros.

O livro é desnecessariamente grande e a autora perdeu várias oportunidades de finalizar a história. Além do fato da zero coesão do Brasil descrito pela autora. Nem mesmo o apocalipse justifica como o povo brasileiro foi retratado. Eu nem ia me espantar se ela comentasse que falamos espanhol.

O que salva um pouco é a reta final, com a aparição do último cavaleiro. Depois da experiência aqui, minhas expectativas para Death foram diminuídas um pouco.

4.5 stars

I thought Famine was an excellent novel. I loved all the same things about this one as I did with the first two books.

I do think there wasn't much variety left for this third horseman. It was more of the same which bumped Famine down to my least favorite of the 3 books so far. I felt his powers were a bit reaching in terms of what he could do as a being mainly known for killing crops. I also wasn't convinced of his reason for keeping Ana around instead of killing her off. He left her once, so why was he hellbent on dragging her around with him, especially when he found her so annoying.

The ending to this book was definitely what made it stand out against the other two. I'm very excited to read the final installment in this series.

Thank you to NetGalley and Bloom Books Publishing for an eARC of this book in exchange for my honest review.

Famine was amazing! I really can't decide who I love more right now, Pestilence or Famine. I am still in awe of how much I am enjoying this series after detesting Book one. This has caused me to go back and revisit Book one at a later date to see if I still feel the same. If you have not read this series, I encourage you to! Just be advised that while this is a romance, it contains ALOT of violent scenes. With that, I enjoyed FAMINE and am seeing Laura Thalassa's writing style in a new light!

<strong>Loved it</strong>

This story is uncanny in how real it could be as far as apocalypse goes. I’m ready for the last horseman. Famine took a long time to reach I can only imagine that death won’t surrender.

What did I like? These books are so different but follow the same series. I’m glad the author does each book so different so you don’t get the was rinse repeat feel. The imagination that came up with this world building is phenomenal. Amazing storytelling series that just suck you in! I just love this series!

Would I recommend or buy? Yes! Yes! Yes! I only buy series I love in paperback and I’ve got all of these. Even if you don’t like the apocalypse genre buy these! Love the new Bloom covers!

The third brother has arrived on Earth to end the humanity. I binge read everything in one sitting, as the plot of the series is getting intriguing.

Famine-The Reaper's power works in both ways---killing crops & also growing plants. Then we have our badass female lead--Ana who kept surprising me throughout the read. Their personality clashes in every aspect, and both of them have opposite goals in life.
But, this couple have good chemistry, plus I enjoyed their banter.

The cliffhanger ending makes me so anticipated to meet the last brother!

Trope:slow burn, dark romance, rivals to lovers

Thank you to Net Galley and the Publisher for this Advanced Readers Copy of Famine by Laura Thalassa

I don't know what Laura Thalassa puts in these books, but they are addicting! Seriously, who knew romances featuring the Four Horsemen of the apocalypse could be so enjoyable?! The story follows almost the exact same formula as book two, but now there's a new setting and new characters. Honestly, I thought Ana and Famine were stronger leads, mainly because the banter between them was hilarious. I found myself laughing and cheering them on, despite the oddity of the setting and situation. I think my only issue with the book was that death was handled so casually. I understand this is the apocalypse, but really? You don't raise an eyebrow when entire cities die? That being said, I knew what I signed up for when I opened a romance book where the MMC is the literal personification of famine.

Read if you like...
❁Touch her and you die
⛏Murder rages (now with even more murder!)
❁I'll protect you from yourself
⛏Hurt comfort
❁Witty dialogue
⛏Sassy and strong FMC
❁I hate everyone but you MMC
⛏A VERY small cast of characters
❁ Quests (but with murder)
⛏I hate that I like you

An ARC of the reprint was provided in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts and opinions remain my own.

Laura Thalassa is one of my favourite authors for NA fantasy romance, I’ve read these previously when they first came out I devoured each one and I was happy to see a new release in paperback too, I will be getting these definitely as I only have ebooks. I loved my reread, the descriptions, the chemistry and her wonderful storylines. Famine comes second for me in my favourite of the 4 books, I loved how he doesn’t let humanity’s worse characteristics win him over, how he loves, but it’s not enough to replace the hurt and suffering, seems more realistic, but they are all 5 star reads so that’s just personal opinion and taste. You need to read these books they’re brilliant

I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

Famine is the third book in The Four Horsemen series by Laura Thalassa. This one is set in Brazil and is the story of Ana da Silva. Enemies to lovers, this one is more charged than Pestilence and War.

After being really disappointed by War, I was pleasantly surprised by Famine! This book is FUNNY and (unintentionally?) irreverent and it's my favorite in the series! It still has the same repetitive nature that I saw in the first two books, but it brought enough personality into it with Famine and Ana that I was able to mostly look past it! Famine and Ana had excellent chemistry and banter and it made the slow burn excellent. As far as anti-heroes go, Famine is by the far worst of his brothers (so far) and that is obvious from the very beginning. Sometimes I didn't know if I was going to come around by the end, but I will tell you that I did even if took almost the entire book! And Ana is easily my favorite so far too. I definitely recommend this one in the series!

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for a copy. All opinions are my own.

"𝐼 𝑑𝑜𝑛'𝑡 𝑠𝑖𝑚𝑝𝑙𝑦 𝑒𝑥𝑖𝑠𝑡. 𝐼 ℎ𝑢𝑛𝑔𝑒𝑟."

𝓰𝓻𝓾𝓮𝓼𝓸𝓶𝓮, 𝓼𝓷𝓪𝓻𝓴𝔂, 𝓮𝓶𝓹𝓪𝓽𝓱𝓮𝓽𝓲𝓬 𝓪𝓷𝓭 𝓼𝓽𝓮𝓪𝓶𝔂

Again, cunningly, Laura Thalassa proves her ability to write unique stories and characters despite a similar underlying scheme. As in ℙ𝕖𝕤𝕥𝕚𝕝𝕖𝕟𝕔𝕖 and 𝕎𝕒𝕣, we are confronted with one of the horsemen finding his one weakness, making him question his purpose all over again. And again, this book feels refreshingly unique and so is Famine, the (by far) most gruesome horseman aka 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗥𝗲𝗮𝗽𝗲𝗿.

Moody, sassy, a tad bit childish, and–most of all–cussing, this horseman bows to no one, not even the confident Ana, a former prostitute who saved his life once before, just to meet the demise of her entire town in the following fallout. Both characters were heavily broken by the world, and it's those jagged edges that make them fit together like pieces of a broken vase.

Enthralling, funny and gruesome with a big whip of sass and anger comes the 3rd installment of the #fourhorsemenseries. Deeply empathetic, compassionate and intimate, filled to the brim with snarky arguments to make you laugh and very different, spicy horseman scenes, this book is a BLISS to fans of the series.

From the three installments of the series, this was BY FAR the best. It made me laugh, cry, groan in frustration, sometimes all at once!

Also: GIVE ME A 2ND BOOK! 😂 I need more of this duo in my life!!

I have mixed feelings about this story. I have read her first two in this series, Pestilence and War, Famine wasn't anything like I thought it would be. The author's interpretation of famine was very creative; however I really struggled with the various violent death scenes. The main female character - I thought her snarkiness and comments were funny and that helped temper the story. 3.5 out of 5 stars.

This was an absolute experience and my favourite of the series so far! Famine is far more vulnerable than his brothers, emotionally pained by his treatment at the hands of humans and if there’s one downside to this book, it’s that Famine did not get hugged. It was impossible not to have tender feelings towards this looming Horseman who was spreading violent death across the world when he was struggling with his emotions and his trauma. It’s difficult to see from the outset of the book how Famine is going to turn things around for himself, especially when the first interactions we see him have with Ana are so cruel. Learning more of their history though, one which connects them so strongly and clearly had an impact on them both, opens a door that this pair dip their toes through. Their relationship is tumultuous and Ana goes through the ringer but I absolutely melt when Thalassa’s equivalent of a ‘bad boy’ character goes against his nature to tend to his woman. And, with the dramatic ending to this book, I can’t wait to see how the last book in the series plays out and if anyone will manage to tame the very sinister and callous Death.

I received a free copy of this book. All views are my own.